Stick to your guns? Or horses for courses?
That is the dilemma that football managers - and head coaches - grapple with on a game-by-game basis. When you have a winning formula, should you stay with it?
Or should you adapt and tweak according to the perceived strengths and weaknesses of your opponents? Tony Mowbray opted to change shape to 4-4-2 to cope with Rotherham's high press and direct style, and Sunderland came unstuck at the New York Stadium with the head coach admitting that his adjustments took away some of the attacking fluency that has served them so well.
READ MORE: Tony Mowbray explains why it's a 'big ask' for Joe Gelhardt to lead the line for Sunderland
A poor first half in which Sunderland barely got going saw Ollie Rathbone put the Millers ahead inside 20 minutes, as Edouard Michut allowed him to advance through midfield without putting in a challenge. Only when Mowbray changed back to his usual 4-2-3-1 system in the second half did his team perk up, and even then they conceded a second goal as Rotherham seized on a Dan Neil error before Shane Ferguson doubled their lead ten minutes after the break.
Joe Gelhardt's first goal for the club brought the Black Cats back into the game on the hour and, immediately afterwards, you could feel the balance shift with the introduction of Patrick Roberts as part of a triple substitution. Had Roberts been on from the start in that shape, there is every chance that Sunderland would have swept aside a low-on-confidence Rotherham team as they had at the Stadium of Light in Mowbray's first game in charge at the end of August.
But, as ever, the result is everything and hindsight is 20-20. If Mowbray had stuck to his guns and lost, he would have been asked why he did not change his approach; as it was, he was left to explain why he had made changes.
There were other factors at play besides the opposition. Fatigue, for one. Sunderland's game at Rotherham was their sixth game in 18 days, and Mowbray is trying to manage the workloads of his players.
He made three changes and won at QPR last week, restored those three players to the side for the weekend draw at home to Bristol City, and made three more changes - including resting Roberts - at Rotherham.
Players such as Neil, Michut, and Amad, looked a little jaded, while Dennis Cirkin had a tough night on his return to the starting XI. And there was also the sheer unpredictability of football.
A Rotherham team fighting relegation, winless in five league games, and with only one win in 12, coming up against a Sunderland side challenging for the play-offs, unbeaten in five league games, and that had lost just one in ten. It was one of those games that demonstrated that any team, if its level drops even slightly, can lose to any other in the Championship.
It also demonstrated why Mowbray has refused to get carried away with talk of reaching the play-offs, preferring to concentrate on one game at a time. Sunderland must simply write this one off, and focus on their next game at Coventry City on Saturday.
READ NEXT:
- Tony Mowbray explains Patrick Roberts' Sunderland starting XI omission with injury claim
- Formation change took away Sunderland's fluency admits boss Tony Mowbray
- Sunderland player ratings as Joe Gelhardt stands out in poor performance at Rotherham
- Sunderland play-off hopes suffer knock after defeat at Rotherham despite Joe Gelhardt goal
- Tony Mowbray determined to keep expectations in check as Sunderland continue to soar
